Becoming Nomad:
Hybrid Spaces, Liquid Architectures1 and Online
Domains
TaPRA Performance and New Technologies Inter-conference Event
2013
on 10 April* at York St John University, York, UK
Online registration is available here
- the closing date is 4 April 2013
Full
programme and Abstracts
are now available.
A research event organised by TaPRA Performance and New
Technologies Working Group in cooperation with York St John
University
Their Performance Anatomical Theatres
of Mixed Realitywill be presented on 10 April.
Confirmed Keynote
Speaker: Professor Maaike Bleeker
Invited
Practitioners: Mark Jeffery and Judd Morrissey
Confirmed
Speakers: Aristita Albacan, Angela Bartram, Camille Baker,
Lynn Book, James Burrows, Phil Christopher, Daniela De Paulis,
Steve Fossey, Kerry Francksen, Douglas Gittens, Edina Husanovic,
Hannah Lammin, Elena Marchevska, Julian Maynard-Smith, Vida
Midgelow, Kira O’ Reilly, Annalisa Piccirillo, Sita Popat, Patricia
Prieto Blanco, Bill Psarras, Jo Scott, Erica Scourti, Helen
Thornham, Craig Vear, Nathan Walker
Conceptions of space and time are necessary
coordinates of a re-interrogation of the limits of corporeality […]
because any understanding of bodies requires a spatial […]
framework. (Elizabeth Grosz 2001:32)
Rosi Braidotti has established the concept of
‘nomadism’ as an analytical tool. Increasingly, in theatre and
performance as in other areas of life, we embody those nomadic,
‘post-identitarian’ subjects (Braidotti 2010) in order to address
the complexities of our times. This interim symposium aims to
explore the ‘becoming-nomad’ (Braidotti 2011: 66) of subjects,
bodies, and ideas that occurs within contemporary globalised,
mediatised, augmented and distributed environments. This symposium
further seeks to map out the multiple transformations that result
from those phenomena in theatre and performance practice and
identify fruitful elements of ‘surprise’ (Grosz 2001: 11) stemming
from the intersections between the virtual and the actual in
potentially different spatial contexts. Putting emphasis
on instances of wandering in, encountering the ‘other’ within and
encountering something other than the actual, we aim to
re-negotiate the concept of becoming, belonging and
being-in-mixed-media worlds.
By setting up dialogues between bodies and
spaces, this interim event seeks to explore the new practices,
philosophies and intensities evoked by the continuously shifting
coordinates of contemporary corporealities, and to renegotiate
notions and experiences of spatial embodiment in contemporary
theatre and performance contexts. Those practices, we argue, raise
questions about issues of responsibility, ethical considerations,
and new approaches to the aesthetic and neuroaesthetic, political
and phenomenological aspects of such spatial transfigurations.
We invite contributions, in the form of a
paper, short performance, practical presentation, or provocation
that reflect on the pivotal role of digital media in the
reconfigurations of creative interactions and address some of the
issues identified below:
- Nomadic Subjects
- Spaces of movement
- Fluid/‘liquid’ architecture(s)
- New coordinates of time and space
- Spaced-out performers/audiences
- Mapping bodied-spaces
- Gaps and trajectories between the ‘here’ and
‘there’ of digital intimacies
- Wearable Spaces
- Telematic/Displaced/Territorial
narratives
- Performance/Theatre and Cultural
Cartographies
- Political space of shifting
coordinates/Shifting coordinates of political space
- Responsibility in becoming other/being
elsewhere
Symposium Fee (Performance fee included)
Students/non-affiliated
delegates:
£20 (TaPRA members)
£30 (non-TaPRA members)
Affiliated delegates:
£30 (TaPRA members)
£40 (non-TaPRA members)
All attendees must complete
online registration.
Workshop: Flat rate of £10 plus VAT (A
limited number of places are available on the workshop)
For further information please contact Eirini
Nedelkopoulou (e.nedelkopoulou@yorksj.ac.uk)
and Maria Chatzichristodoulou (m.chatzi@hull.ac.uk)
Anatomical Theatres of Mixed
Reality
Anatomical Theatres of Mixed Reality is a
durational live performance and installation that engages histories
of forensics and anatomical science, placing the crudeness of early
surgery in relation to the prevailing 21st century vision of a body
enhanced by data and augmented by computation. The core of the
installation is an interactive operating table that generates
screen-based content, transmits real-time data to performers, and
distributes virtual overlays that can be viewed through mobile
devices. The spatial choreography of tables enacts anatomy as both
intact whole and distributed data-consuming system, as the elevated
surface of the work shifts underfoot, fluctuating between
references to surgery and banquet.
Inhabiting Systems: Operations in
Mixed Reality
Contemporary technologies are blurring the
boundaries between human bodies and computational tools, which are
increasingly seen as integral extensions of our biological forms.
Relatedly, our orientation within geo-physical space is being
complicated by mobile computing, ubiquitous data, and technologies
that merge elements of physical and virtual worlds. Workshop
participants will reconsider anatomy and site within the context of
extended bodies and mixed realities, experimenting with the
juxtaposition of live and virtual imagery as well as the
internalisation of real-time data and computational processes.
Conceptualised as an operating theatre, the workshop will examine
depictions of early anatomical theatre (in which surgical
procedures were performed publicly in specially built
amphitheatrical spaces) in conjunction with 21st century visions of
the body.
The workshop can accommodate up to 24
participants, who are invited to become part of the live
installation/performance on the following day.
1 Novak (1991)
*A pre-conference workshop run by Mark Jeffery and Judd
Morrissey will take place on 9 April 2013.